UNSEEN WOMAN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3583, 7 March 1914, Page 10

UNSEEN WOMAN.

Remarkable evidence of an aged woman and her brother who led the life of recluses in a house in Queen Elizabeth’s Walk, Stoke Newington, was given at an inquest recently. According to an English exchange, the woman, Sarah Henrietta Lapwood, who was aged GG, was found dead by her brother. According to a written statement by the. brother, who is deaf, he and his sister had lived together for 21 years. A nephew of the woman described the couple as very eccentric. He had not seen them for more than two years. Their father, he believed, had been the proprietor of a line of omnibuses, and they lived on the property he left them. The womanhad been a cripple from infancy, and the brother had never been put to a trade. James Brewer, an estate agent who called at the house every Tuesday, said the woman had put a chain on the door a few inches,and he would pass the rent-hook through this aperture. She would never allow her face to be seen. It was stated that she would never allow anyone to do her a service, and ■ t was suggested that she slept in ordinary day clothing, as she did not appear to have any night apparel. xV post-mortem examination showed that death was due to Bright's disease, accelerated by self-neglect and the effects of the cold weather, and the jury returned a verdict accordingly.